Like the Army Itself, Recruiters Prepare to Make Do With Less

By ADESHINA EMMANUEL

Published: September 6, 2012

Army Strong,'' the United States Army has tailored its recruiting strategy to fill its ranks in war and in peace, in the years of the draft and with an all-volunteer force. It has reframed its education targets, sometimes opening its doors to high school
dropouts, at other times pursuing college graduates and, more recently, finding a way to assess home-schooled students.

And as the Army makes the transition to a smaller fighting force with a tighter budget, it is not surprising to find Pentagon officials expressing confidence that recruiters are nimble enough to adapt to a new organizational model.">

WASHINGTON -- From Uncle Sam saying ''I want YOU'' through ''Be All You Can Be'' to today's ''Army Strong,'' the United States Army has tailored its recruiting strategy to fill its ranks in war and in peace, in the years of the draft and with an all-volunteer force. It has reframed its education targets, sometimes opening its doors to high school
dropouts, at other times pursuing college graduates and, more recently, finding a way to assess home-schooled students.

And as the Army makes the transition to a smaller fighting force with a tighter budget, it is not surprising to find Pentagon officials expressing confidence that recruiters are nimble enough to adapt to a new organizational model.

But along with this confidence, there is concern about how recruiting will be affected by even sharper budget cuts scheduled to take effect in January, unless Congress can find a way to avert them. Some defense analysts say a military career could become
a tougher sell, especially if federal budget cuts reduce pay and benefits for service members and the economy improves.

The Army has begun remaking its recruiting structure, a change it aims to complete by 2015. Donald Herth, chief of advertising and public affairs for the Army's Columbus Recruiting Battalion, based in Ohio, said the staff and duties of recruiting
offices would be consolidated to make better use of resources and bring recruiting ''more in line with everyday Army life,'' where soldiers are deployed as teams.

In the past, recruiting officers worked alone, identifying prospective soldiers, processing their applications and preparing them for basic training.

Kathleen Welker, a public information officer for the Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky., said recruiters failed or succeeded on their own merit.

''But the fact is, even though they are all trained, just by virtue of personality, not everybody is as good at everything,'' she said.

Under the new model, recruiters will be deployed as teams from centralized offices that have civilian employees to handle much of the administrative work. A handful of such consolidated centers are up and running. One in Coney Island, in Brooklyn, is
scheduled to open this month, and will be staffed by recruiters from three nearby offices that are closing.

For the 2013 fiscal year, which will start on Oct. 1, the Defense Department asked for $913.8 million for recruiting, $53.4 million less than the year before. About $37.5 million of that drop would come from the Army, which has a $338 million recruiting
budget through the reorganization and, with the war in Afghanistan winding down, the need to enlist fewer soldiers.

Ms. Welker said in an e-mail that the transition to the new recruiting model would continue, though ''we anticipate having to go slower than we thought'' because of uncertainties about the automatic budget cuts, known as sequestration.

The Obama administration recently shielded active-duty personnel from cuts in pay and benefits if Congress cannot agree on how to undo sequestration by the end of the year.

The administration's decision potentially means taking more money from elsewhere, including training, at a time when the military has been focusing on filling the jobs of specialists in technology, health care,
nuclear energy and foreign languages.

Special training opportunities that can translate later to the private sector are important incentives in the recruiting of college graduates, according to Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense analyst at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute,
a policy group based in Washington.

One recent Army recruit, a 23-year-old Midwesterner who graduated last year from a small liberal arts college, said he had enlisted in large part because he thought such specialized training could help him at the end of his five-year contract, when he
plans to seek a bigger paycheck in the private defense sector.

He opted to join the Army after assessing the job market at the start of his senior year. With degrees in philosophy and political science, he was afraid of ending up like many of his peers, jobless and freighted with debt. He now earns about $1,500 a
month training as a signals intelligence analyst in an Indo-Iranian language.

A stronger economy might have led to a different decision.

''It's hard to say, as my whole adult life has been marked by economic doomsday predictions and real economic crises,'' said the recruit, who spoke without permission from superiors and did not want his name published. Better
prospects for a civilian job ''would have reduced the chances'' of his joining the Army, though he said he was happy to be there now.

Military analysts debate what it would take to dull the luster of enlisting in the Army, either for a short-term contract or as a career. James Jay Carafano, a security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said cuts in compensation and benefits
could send more people to the private sector if the jobs picture brightens and ''financial support for the military drops.''

Michael E. O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution, said he did not see the value of a military career diminishing any time soon.

However, he said other issues could eventually affect recruiting, including the ''publicity and reality'' of post-traumatic stress disorder in returning troops and the increase in military suicides.

PHOTO: Recruits taking an oath in Times Square in June. With budget cuts looming and fewer soldiers needed, the Army is remaking its recruiting structure. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES)

Army Strong,'' the United States Army has tailored its recruiting strategy to fill its ranks in war and in peace, in the years of the draft and with an all-volunteer force. It has reframed its education targets, sometimes opening its doors to high school
dropouts, at other times pursuing college graduates and, more recently, finding a way to assess home-schooled students.

And as the Army makes the transition to a smaller fighting force with a tighter budget, it is not surprising to find Pentagon officials expressing confidence that recruiters are nimble enough to adapt to a new organizational model.">